John Hensel

The Measure | The coin and empire emerge together. A mercenary without local ties could pay the expenses of life if impartial quantity replaced the personalized systems of credit and obligation that predated it. Coins as we know them—small, circular, and stamped—appeared in Anatolia around 600 B.C.E., facilitating the paying of soldiers and the buying of slaves. How ironic now to look upon the emancipator stamped on copper-platted zinc.

This series of coins were worn in use over their lifetimes. I’ve collected these over a couple decades, in that nearly forgotten time when cash was still in everyday use. Worn effigies, bas-relief in copper and zinc, they hold a value, but what is it?

It has always been a latent truth that money is valued over human lives in our society, but seldom has it been so starkly on display in our previous years of COVID and as the founding principles of our nation are being sabotaged by those who pretend to Lincoln’s legacy. www.johnhensel.net